General Chat

Long before being drawn into the hobby of genealogy, I was interested in genetics, and in particular, twin studies.

As twins tend to run in families, has anyone here come accross twin births consistantly in their lineage. Perhaps you are a twin yourself.

My cousin has twins,her mother had twins and twin brothers.Our grandfather had twin brothers.

Hi Annina,

I am a twin.....and I have 6 sets of twins & triplets .

All over the family....the nearest are my brothers daughter had twins and my sisters daughter in law had twins
My grt grandmother had the triplets (one died). in those days surprised the other two survived. !!

The rest are my 1st cousins and my mothers 1st cousins .
None on my fathers side.....or my husbands side of the family.

So I guess it my mothers line that these twins arise from.

Hi Annian:

I have been interested in twins as well probably because we have a load of twins in my family as well as my hubby's. My maternal great great grandfather had a set of twin siblings. His son my great grandfather had two sets of twin brother siblings. My maternal grandmother was an identical twin and she had a set of twin siblings (boy & girl) however the boy died very young. This grandmother being a twin had two sets of twins one identical one paternal (girls). My Mom had a set of identical twin girls (my youngest sisters) and one of Mom's sisters had a set as well. I have five cousins who have identical twins.

On my husbands side his grandmother in the early 1900's had two sets of identical twins and a set of triplets all three sets were born a year apart. I have a lovely picture of the six clothes lines she had full of nothing but diapers. Poor woman must have spent all day doing nothing but...lol

I wasn't blessed with twins and decided to stop with one child. lol.

Thanks all for replying, this is fascinating to me, I always longed for twins, even my 5th pregnancy. Never did though, and have not come accross any in my family.

It is so sad that many of the twin births don't survive, but even today they pose more of a risk.

One thing that I wonder, is anyone an identical twin pair who have married twin spouse's. Do all the offspring look like siblings rather than cousins, and lots of silly questions like that.

Hi Annina

Twins certainly run in my family. Grandmothers and their granddaughters have them.

My cousin has twins, I miscarried twins. Our gran had twins and her gran had 22 children of whom there were 10 sets of twins and 2 single births.

There are also triplets in that side of the family too.

There are also twins on my fathers side of the family too, although they don't appear to follow a pattern like my mother's side.

Dianne xx

Oddly enough, I always believed there were no twins on my grandad Hurst's side - it turned out that my great-great grandfather John Hurst had a younger brother and sister (William and Elizabeth) who were twins, born when their mum was thirty-nine and the last children in the family.

Then I found out that their mum (Susannah) had been a twin herself, that their father (John) had younger sisters Ann and Elizabeth who were twins (John and Susannah were related anyway, too!) and that Susannah's elder sister Catherine had twin girls Winifred and Ann.

To make things even stranger, my gran had twin sisters (the youngest, although great-grandma died aged only 38) and their father had a younger brother and sister who were twins (again, the last children in the family). My great-grandad on that side had a brother whose wife had a set of twins in her late thirties/early forties too!

What is really peculiar about these instances of twins is that they seem to have all arrived during the mother's later childbearing years. In at least two cases they were the mother's last known children.

I would say that later fraternal twins would probably be the start of the menopause when the hormones go a bit haywire. I would think that oestrogen levels would be responsible for the release of two ova instead of one.

Kate's thread bears out the fact that it is well known you are more likely to concieve twins in older years.I believe,also that it is the tendancy to have fraternal(none identical) twins that is a genetic trait.

Did anyone see,in the news the other day, the lady who had just produced identical triplet girls, only a year or so after having the same? How cool is that, but I don't envy her,her workload.

Hi Annina,
I had my twin girls at the age of 39.
Thought I was pregnant with No. 5 and then the doc said "twins"
Things have been a struggle at times but they are now beautiful girls of 23.
.I have 6 girls and no boys.

I was told that the older you are and the more children you have then the chances of twins is higher.
Sue x

Well not always, as my friend had identical twins at the age of 24, then went on to have 4 more single children!